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- Troy Aikman and Joe Buck are officially ESPN employees and very wealthy ones with Aikman getting paid a reported $18 million/year
- Troy was at Fox for 20 seasons before leaving for ESPN and he recently discussed the departure and was asked why Fox let him leave
- Read more NFL stories here
ESPN’s newest employees, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, are two of the highest-paid broadcasters in sports. It has been widely reported that Troy Aikman is making around $18 million per year on a 5-year contract with ESPN and Joe Buck is reportedly bringing in $12 to $13M/year.
It has also been reported that Troy was making around $7.5 million/year at Fox so a jump up to $18+ million each year is a HUGE raise. But it’s still perplexing that Fox would let Troy Aikman and Joe Buck leave the way they did, isn’t it? There was no counter offer from Fox and no fight to keep the duo intact.
As a guest on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast this week, Aikman was asked about this. He was asked why he believes Fox let him walk out the door to ESPN and if he’ll ever get closure on how that relationship ended without a proper counter offer despite Troy working there for 20 seasons.
Troy Aikman Discusses Leaving Fox For ESPN And A Major Looming Question Left Unanswered
Troy Aikman on why Fox let him leave for ESPN: “I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know that I ever will get the answer to that one. I think through it all, it’s a business. Fox is welcome to do whatever it is they feel is in their best interest as I am, as everybody is, so there’s no hard feelings about anything. I had a great 21 years at Fox. I guess what’s perplexing to me is that I had no conversation with my boss [Fox Sports president Eric Shanks] until he called me to congratulate me on my contract with ESPN.”
Troy Aikman on looming questions: “I guess it’s disappointing. I would’ve thought there would’ve been a conversation at least. And then when I did talk with him, I just asked for an explanation on some things that I didn’t quite understand, and he opted not to do that as well. I guess that’s where it’s left and that’s how I’ll leave Fox and that’s fine. I’m excited about ESPN and thrilled to continue to work with Joe.”
Troy Aikman on Fox letting Joe Buck leave for ESPN: “I think that [Fox] probably would’ve liked to have kept Joe. He’s a real asset to the company, of course, with all that he does. And when I say all that he does, it goes beyond what the public sees with baseball and football and when the network had golf. He also does a lot behind the scenes for the company. He has been a valued asset, but he’s probably as confused as I am in the sense that, you know, the talks that I was having with Amazon were going on for quite some time and yet there were no conversations going on with Joe and how that might impact him.”
“So I think it was just a lack of communication all the way across the board and probably still continues with a lot of people within the company and what exactly their next steps are.”
If you’ve got some time and would like to listen to the full Sports Illustrated Media Podcast episode, you can hit that ‘play’ button right above and just leave this article open in a tab and let it play in the background.
With such a limited selection of games, I have trouble wrapping my mind around how it’s worth it to ESPN to pay these two guys a combined $30 million or more each year. The Joe Buck salary somewhat makes sense to me as he works across an array of sports and not just the NFL but forking over $18 million/year to Troy Aikman to call Monday Night Football breaks my brain.